19th Annual MTN SAMA Awards | Nominees

It’s almost that time of year again, the time South African musicians, producers, engineers and video directors look forward to: The MTN South African Music Awards.

The list of nominees for this year’s SAMA Awards, now in its 19th year, was announced today at the Turbine Hall in Newtown, Johannesburg. The awards themselves are set to take place at the Sun City Superbowl on the 10th and the 11th of May.

Producers assure us that this year will be the “most digitally conneted” awards ceremony for the SAMAs ever. The nominee announcement was streamed live on the MTN SAMA mobisite and on Facebook. All the festivities that will take place on the Y’ello Carpet will also be streamed live to these sites. You can catch all the glitzy action as well on either the mobisite, Facebook or on YouTube.

MTN SAMA CEO, Nhlanhla Sibisi, confidently assured South Africans in statement that, “There will be shock, awe and surprises and we cannot wait for the weekend of 10 – 11 May 2012 at the Sun City Superbowl”.

2013 seems to be the Year of the Newcomer with many of the newcomers receiving the bulk of the judges’ nods. Toya Delazy leads the pack with a staggering 6 nominations including Pop Album and Record of the Year. She’s followed hot on the heels by ChianoSky with 5 nominations. The Muffinz, DJ Vetkuk vs. Mahoota and BlackByrd all received 4 nominations a piece.

Record of the Year sees a plethora of artists nominated and every South African will have someone to root for! Voting lines for Record of the Year opened on the 20th of March and close on the 9th of May at 8pm. The top 5 records will move forward into a final voting process to decide on a winner. Voting lines will reopen for these nominees on the 10th of May at 8am and the winner will be announced on the 11th, live on SABC1.

In case you missed it, check out the full list of nominees right here:

Album of the Year
Kelly Khumalo – The Past, The Present, The Future
Khuli Chana – Lost in Time
Maleh – Step Child
Ntokozo Mbambo – Filled
The Muffinz – Have You Heard?